Chapter 5 – Thirteen Months Ago

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Present Day

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It took Chad about a week to realize that maybe getting Gil to love him wasn't going to happen.

Not because the teen was incapable of love or anything, it was more like love wasn't a thing that the VKs gave easily, so he probably wasn't going to waste it on a cat.

Which left Chad in a precarious position, because he'd spent a week catting it up, doing his best to be adorable and cuddly and full of purrs and whatever else he thought Gil might want instead of like – telling someone about his curse. He still had a human intellect. It wasn't a great intellect, but it was certainly enough that he could grab a pencil or something with his mouth and communicate with someone. He could probably use a keyboard to get his point across, slowly but surely. It'd take time, but he'd get there.

And yet, Chad held off. Because he wanted to keep trying, because he thought one more day would help, and then he realized-

Maybe he was so reluctant to change back because he enjoyed being a cat.

It was sort of undeniable. Chad liked sleeping on Gil's chest, comfortable and warm and not alone. He liked the endless amount of tuna and not having to worry if his next mistake would get his food taken away. He liked not having the stress of attempting to be a perfect prince when he knew full-well he wasn't. He liked being able to be good at something for once, especially if that thing was keeping Gil and the others company. He liked sprawling across laps and getting scratches and raising them up when they felt low, and he knew for a fact that none of those were things he could achieve as Chad.

But as Shadow, he could, which made Chad realize something.

He didn't really want to be human after all. He enjoyed his new life, and he was glad he was terrible at breaking the curse because this was what he wanted. And sure, that cut like, eighty years off his lifespan, but-

Well, he'd rather enjoy a short, fulfilling life than a long, empty one.

The joke was on the Enchantress for this one. He loved his curse. And if he could help it, he was never going to break it.

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13 Months Ago

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"There's no way I'm going to Cotillion with you."

The words seemed to make Chad's world stutter to a ruthless halt, everything crashing down around him while his ears rang with white noise, though he knew that somehow, someway, everyone else's lives still continued on, including Audrey's, who had just ripped his night to pieces.

"I thought about it," Audrey continued blithely on the phone, unaware of Chad's panic. "But I don't think I can handle watching that girl get introduced as Lady of the Court instead of me."

"Okay." That seemed fair. In retrospect, it was honestly a little rude of Chad to try and make her do that much just for him. "Then maybe I can come to you and we can-"

"About that," Audrey interrupted, using one of Chad's least favorite combination of words. "I'm not sure I can really commit to you either."

No. No-no-no – things had been going so well. He'd done everything she'd asked for and been kind and considerate like Mal said he should be. What had he done wrong?

"You're used goods, Chad," Audrey huffed. "I know you were a virgin before Jay got to you, but you're tainted now that he's gotten his grubby little hands all over you." Chad felt like his heart was beating in his throat, threatening to leap out of his mouth in a bid to escape this madness. "That's something I might be willing to overlook… eventually," she settled on. "Given the right incentive. But I can't do it now, okay Chaddie? When I look at you all I can think about is how you were so desperate for sex that you wanted him to touch you – it makes me doubt your reliability, is all. But I'm sure you can prove that in time."

He wasn't- she thought he wasn't reliable, but Jay had said- Jay had said this would prove Chad's commitment.

How had Jay been wrong?

"So I'm going to be staying at my meditative retreat over summer," Audrey continued, totally contented in her choices. "Try to be a good boy while I'm gone, okay? If you stay nice and untainted, maybe I'll agree to date you." They were clear enough instructions, and Chad was about to thank her for them before she steamrolled on. "Alright, I've got to go now, Chaddie. Have fun at Cotillion! Not."

She hung up before he could get a word in edgewise, leaving him standing in the shelter of Jay and Carlos' room, braving enemy territory just so he could get that 3D copy of Ben's crown that Audrey wanted for some reason. They were supposed to roleplay, whatever that meant, and now they weren't going to do anything. Chad had gotten his best suit, commissioned a special cape, and bought Audrey a mess of jewelry he couldn't really afford just so he could ensure the night was perfect, and now it was over before it even really started.

He felt a familiar heat build behind his eyes but ruthlessly shoved it down when he heard the door crack open behind him, his mind racing.

He hoped it was Carlos. Please, let it be Carlos. The young De Ville didn't like Chad, but at least he didn't give Chad sad eyes any time they happened to have a conversation.

"Chad," Carlos groaned, likely letting his head fall back in despair. "This is my room, Chad."

"Hold on." Chad swallowed, and then pretended he was still on the phone with Audrey. He panicked, spinning a tale about how she had gotten a flat tire in Sherwood Forest on the way back from her retreat, knowing the place was too far away for him to get there and back in time for Cotillion.

"Dude." Carlos' gaze wasn't pitying, exactly, but he seemed close to it. "Sherwood Forest is like, six hours away. Just call her a tow truck."

"No," Chad sniffed, tried to pretend it was haughty but really he was just trying not to sob. "I have to show her I'm dedicated. Besides, this is what princes do – we rescue fair damsels." And exit the situation like cowards, forgetting the dumb crown as he strolled forcefully out the door before Jay could show up and rub his charismatic, free-wheeling status in Chad's face.

Chad wanted to hunt him down, wanted to yell at him, wanted to scream because Jay had been so wrong it wasn't even funny, he'd been so wrong that Chad's grandfather and Audrey were all but done with him, and what had Jay gotten in return? The satisfaction of seeing Chad at his weakest.

If this didn't prove how big a fool he was, Chad didn't know what would. What had he been thinking – that he and Jay were friends? That Mal liked him? It was madness – the lot of it.

And now Chad had to deal with reality in the manner in which he had become accustomed. Alone.

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Because Chad was so brilliantly useless, he ended up on the beaches of Belle's Harbor, biking to a private cove in his formal suit, the cape Evie lovingly made him tucked up underneath his hoody as he tried to find a place he could hide away until the excitement was over. Six hours to Sherwood Forest and Six hours back plus maybe an hour of working on Audrey's fake car meant that he'd have to lay low for thirteen hours, or until five in the morning, if he wanted to pretend he drove through the night. This was what led him to stashing his bike in a cave that was too inconvenient to be accessed by most people, leaving Chad to bawl his eyes out curled against the trunk of a tree on the edge of where the sand shifted into dirt, curling up into a small ball to begin his wait.

If he was smart, he would have brought a book or something, but he wasn't smart, which was why he had thought dating Jay was a good idea, which was why he had grown to like it, which was why his grandfather had to throw him into a trunk for a week to bring a reality check crashing down on him. Maybe Chad should pass on his claim to the crown, but if he did that, he'd have nothing left. He needed something to push him forward, and he wasn't good enough to be motivated by his own merits.

Hours passed and night fell, making Chad wonder how Cotillion was going. He wondered how Mal would look being carefully guided around the dancefloor in Ben's arms. He wondered how many girls Jay would dance with- then wondered how many guys, which was a notion that made Chad so sick to his stomach that he had to abandon it immediately, overcome by a fresh wave of tears.

It was dark by the time he caught a flash of brightness near the ocean's edge, and he rubbed at his eyes fitfully in an attempt to see what, exactly, it was. He tensed when he realized it wasn't a what so much as a who, and before he knew it, he was stumbling into the shallows, formal suit be damned as he rushed to help the young lady get out of the ocean.

"Holy fuck," she said when he drew closer to her, about knee-deep in the water. It was her dress that had caught his eye – that and her hair, both being a brilliant shade of turquoise that were drenched with saltwater. "That was way more exhausting than I thought it'd be."

"Are you okay?"

She blinked up at him in surprise, as though she hadn't expected company, and Chad took that opportunity to guide one of her arms around his neck, taking some of her weight so she could make it safely back to shore.

Instead of answering his question, she just sort of stared at him. "…You're a prince."

Chad felt himself blush. At some point, he'd abandoned his hoody and cloak, leaving him in the formal dress suit that marked him distinctly as the heir to Sardinia. "Yeah."

"But you weren't at that party," she continued.

That was concerning. "You were?" he asked, pulling them towards the shallows. The water was at their shins now. "Did you fall overboard?"

"Something like that," she said, and Chad decided to let her have her secrets, because he'd be embarrassed if he'd fallen overboard too. Not as embarrassed as he was getting ditched like, an hour before the party, but still not great.

"Do you need to call someone?" Chad asked. He probably should have taken off his shoes before running to her, but there was no point in bemoaning wet socks now. "I have a phone you can borrow."

Hers was likely all wet.

When they strolled onto dry sand, she stopped, forcibly pulling herself away from him so they could square off in that particular way Mal and the others did sometimes. "Why the fuck are you being so helpful?"

That, at least, was a familiar question. "Because it's the right thing to do?" Chad offered and then, when she continued to look unimpressed, he added, "I also wanted to feel… useful, I guess."

"Yeah?" she cocked a brow at him. "That have anything to do with…" She motioned towards the tear tracks that had likely dried on Chad's cheeks, and with a new sense of shame, Chad tried to rub them away.

"Sort of," he allowed.

The girl rolled her eyes. "What the fuck does a prince have to be sad about?"

When she put it like that, Chad's problems seemed especially petty. "Sorry," he offered on reflex. "I um… I got ditched, so…"

"Ditched?" she echoed. "What's that mean?"

"It um… means that someone made a commitment to me that they uh- disregarded at the last minute," he explained, feeling like he was talking to Mal, in a way.

The girl propped her hands on her hips, narrowing her gaze at him. "That seems like grounds for a good stabbing, to me."

"I can't- I'm not stabbing Audrey." The very prospect of it seemed ludicrous. "Besides, it was my fault anyway. I'm the stupid person who got his hopes up." He rubbed at his cheeks once more, just in case he had missed anything. "Um… are you cold?"

The girl released a weary sigh. "This again?"

Chad felt himself flush. "If you don't want my help, you can just say so. I'm good at respecting boundaries."

He had to be, because there were just so many of them.

There was that unimpressed look again. "Blondie, if you knew who I was, you wouldn't want to help me."

"You couldn't know that for sure," Chad said. Like, obviously this was one of the many classmates he had never spoken to because he didn't recognize who she was – maybe the daughter of a sidekick, if she'd only recognized him as a prince instead of Chad.

"Sure I would," the girl scoffed. "What prince would want to help out the daughter of Ursula the sea witch?"

Chad paused, letting the words wash over him. "Oh, so Ben did manage to get more VKs over from the Isle. Were you a surprise for Cotillion?"

The daughter of Ursula stared at him as though he had grown a second head. "No, I snuck off the Isle when Mal and her crew decided to come back for a visit."

That was… huh. Chad didn't know what was a thing that could be done.

"That's fine," he said, suddenly understanding why she'd been swimming in the ocean. Of course she was excited. "Technically, your containment to the Isle is a crime anyway – we just need to get you claimed as a refugee and they won't be able to send you back." He rubbed his chin, trying to plan out the logistics of it. "Did anyone else come over with you?"

She stared at him with narrowed eyes. "My 'containment' is a crime, eh?"

Chad made a face. "It's delicate, because the laws that set up the Isle in the first place technically establish it as a land unto itself where no laws apply – meaning that Auradon isn't under any commitment to react to anything that happens there."

"Yeah," she huffed under her breath, folding her arms across her chest. "I got that."

Right. "So really, it's the establishment of a system that could allow for the abuse of civilians that have committed no crimes in Auradon that's the issue, and correcting that takes… a lot of time." Chad didn't know for sure, because he wasn't actually friends with Ben. "The stop-gap measure was to bring over more VKs slowly but surely until they fixed the system altogether."

"Well, your buddy boy Ben forgot the part where he got us out of that hell hole!" she snapped, jaw tightening.

Ben had… but it was Ben. Granted, Ben was only human, but he'd said he was bringing over more VKs. He'd promised.

"Then… we have to go by council consensus," Chad murmured, mind trying to move five steps ahead.

"What?" the teen pressed, staring at him in that intense way again.

"If things aren't being carried out via order of the king," Chad explained. "Then we can achieve similar means with a council consensus. If we can get a majority of the council to back legislature that moves to get the kids off the Isle, then we can get something done whether Ben acts on it or not."

"So let me get this straight," the girl pressed. "You actually want to get the kids off the Isle?"

"Of course." Chad blinked. "They're kids. They- you didn't do anything wrong."

She stared at him for a hard moment, and it was like the very pieces of Chad's soul were being investigated, every part of him looked over in a rigid evaluation that left him wavering with uncertainty.

"Okay," she said after a long moment. "Let's put your money where your mouth is. You want to be useful? Do the damn job your king wouldn't do."

"I'll try," Chad said, had to explain. "I've got to warn you now, though, I'm not very smart, or good at talking to people-"

"You talked to me just fine," she insisted with a raised brow. "Just do that."

Oh. He hadn't thought of it like that.

"Okay," he said finally. "Okay, we'll get things fixed up." As he did every time he encountered an immense problem, he broke it down into smaller, more achievable pieces. "First, we've got to get you claimed as a refugee."

Uma cocked her head to the side. "About that…"

That was how he came to learn the whole sordid tale of Ben's kidnapping and rescue, then Uma's attempted love spelling and the attack at Cotillion and how she had ended up on his beach.

"…yikes," Chad said when it was finally all over. "Hold on."

He got out his phone, talked her through what he was doing. Ben was a decent guy, so there was a good chance he would dismiss any formal charges that were placed against Uma out of sympathy. Chad used the backdoor he had bribed his way into getting for the digital United Auradon paper trail and confirmed what he had already guessed. Ben's parents and Mal likely wouldn't be happy about it, but that gave them the benefit of Uma keeping her clean slate in Auradon. That was what mattered.

Now onto the issue of getting her claimed as a refugee so she could have rights.

"Do you feel up for another swim?" Chad asked, eyeing the ocean carefully. "We need to go east, to Corona."

"What's in Corona?" she asked, brows furrowed in confusion.

"A sympathetic queen with a prison reform system that actually works," Chad said, getting more behind the idea. "We can keep your presence a secret, but if anyone would claim you as a refugee, it's Queen Rapunzel. Her husband was a conman."

"Huh." She grinned. "That seems promising."

"I hope so," Chad said. This was already going better than the lonely night of heartbreak he'd been anticipating.

"So, what?" Uma pressed. "Do you want me to drag your ass along behind me all the way to another kingdom? You're not afraid I'll ditch you in the middle of the ocean?"

"I mean, you might," Chad allowed. "But you seem to really care about your crew, so you probably won't do that if it means you can help them."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "You princes are all obnoxious," she decided.

Chad did not disagree. Audrey said he was obnoxious all the time.

"My name's Chad," he said when he finally realized he hadn't actually introduced himself, too used to people knowing who he was before he'd even met them. "What's your name?"

She paused at the edge of the water, her lips parting in a mischievous grin. "It's Uma."

"Nice to meet you, Uma." He offered his hand out for her to shake, and after a moment, she accepted it, her fingers calloused and scarred, much like Jay and Mal's.

"Likewise, maybe," she allowed, and then she was dragging him out into the water, seeming to hold her head just a little bit higher.

Perhaps Chad should be scared, but really, he just felt impowered. He was going to do something. He was going to make a difference.

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By the time they got to Corona, Chad was overwhelmed with both terror and exhilaration. Uma had cut through the water like a rocket, and while Chad could already feel bruises beginning to form from where her tentacle had been wrapped around him (that had been something – tentacles), he sensed that she had exerted a certain level of care to part the water around him, to provide less drag so he wouldn't be as battered when they reached shore again.

When they clambered up onto an isolated dock, Uma's chest was heaving from exertion, and Chad wasted no time looping her arm across his shoulders once more, curling an arm around her waist so he could take the majority of her weight as they limped up the dock.

"Don't worry," he was telling her, keeping his voice low. "We'll find some place out of the way where you can rest and I'll seek an audience with the king and queen. I'll get things cleared up so you don't have to worry about them trying to arrest you."

"Awfully kind of you, Prince Chadwick," a voice said from the shadows, which was all the warning Chad got before they were surrounded by royal guards. Chad looked towards where the voice had originated from and caught King Eugene fluttering his fingers in a lazy greeting, Queen Rapunzel looking concerned beside him. "May I ask why you would do such a thing?"

"Ben didn't place any formal charges against her," Chad explained, shifting so that he could block as much of Uma from view as possible. "You can check for yourself."

"We will," Queen Rapunzel said, nodding towards a slighter gentleman in the shadows that Chad hadn't seen before, a thick pair of engineer's goggles on his head.

"How did you know we were here?" Uma growled, her body wracked with tension.

"Well…" King Eugene began with a grin. "Turns out, after your crown princess gets kidnapped by a proficient magic user, some kingdoms are a bit paranoid about that stuff and set up a magic detection system. Sort of like an alarm, if you will."

Oh. Fuck. Chad hadn't known that. It made sense, but he hadn't been banking on Corona knowing they were coming. It made him want to release a deluge of apologies to Uma, even if he knew the action was useless. He'd betrayed her trust, however unwillingly.

"He's right," Goggle Guy said, staring at his phone. "King Ben declined to press formal charges. There's a request to report any sightings of her, but no outstanding charges."

"Please, don't." Chad was pretty sure exercising basic manners wouldn't help with political maneuvering, but it was the only thing he had going for him. "Please. Uma… made some bad choices." There was no denying that. "But she only did it because she didn't see any other options. Because she was trying to protect the other kids trapped on the Isle who don't deserve to be there."

Queen Rapunzel considered him for a hard moment, her assessment almost as painful as Uma's – and it was strange, to be so carefully evaluated, to be regarded so purely not only once, but twice in one evening. No one generally bothered to extend that much effort towards Chad.

It made him wonder if this was how Ben felt all the time.

Eventually, she nodded. "Why don't we continue this conversation inside?"

It wasn't really a question, so Chad didn't hesitate to guide Uma after the King and Queen, the royal guard and Goggle Guy moving to surround them.

There was also a very serious-looking horse without a rider – maybe Maximus? Ruby talked about him sometimes.

King Eugene was the one to dismiss the guards when they got to an unobtrusive entrance to the castle. Two remained behind as escorts as they traveled rarely-used passages to eventually arrive at a sitting room.

Queen Rapunzel turned towards one of the guards. "Could you fetch Nigel, please? Tell him to prepare the guest rooms; and we'll need towels."

"You don't have to wait for the towels to have a seat though," King Eugene said lazily, flopping down onto one of the couches. "Goodness knows that furniture's been through worse than a little sea water."

Uma tensed the same way Mal used to do when she was ready to snarl at someone, so Chad squeezed her arm gently, trying to get her to prioritize. This was important.

"Thank you, your majesty," Chad said, lowering Uma and himself down onto the couch across from the king, pretending to ignore the way the king gasped in delight at being reminded of his status.

Ruby always said her dad was a little weird, but like, 'in a good way'. Chad just hoped that good part would pull through today.

"Alright, Chad," Queen Rapunzel said, sitting beside her husband with a quiet sort of grace. "Why are you here?"

There was no point in beating around the bush. "We need your help," he explained, Uma tensing once more at the last word. "Uma needs to be claimed as a refugee for Corona."

"Not to play the devil's advocate here," King Eugene spoke up with a lazy wave of his hand. "But have you, by chance, been spelled into helping this young lady?"

"What?" In hindsight, it wasn't an unfair question, Chad just didn't think he gave off the disposition of being spelled. "No."

"Not sure why I asked," the king mused, though it seemed mostly to be to himself. "It's not like you would have said 'yes' if you were."

"What Eugene means is that we'd like to clear you of that doubt," Queen Rapunzel explained, loosing a golden tendril of hair from her long braid. "Just wrap this around your wrist and we can move on."

Chad didn't shoot Uma a look because he didn't want to cast more suspicions upon her. He wrapped the silky strands around his wrist as instructed, and watched in wonder as they glowed to life, the queen humming a familiar song under her breath.

Chad felt the magic pulse through him, sort of hugging him like an old friend. He felt the bruises he had accumulated on the trip over fade away until he was unblemished, and he tried to savor it while he forced himself to let go, putting his hands back into his lap like the good prince he was.

When he looked back to the king and queen, they were staring at him expectantly.

Chad shrugged. "Still not spelled."

"Huh." That made the king actually sit up, regarding Uma. "So you saw everything that happened and thought 'this is a cry for help', instead of being scared."

"He wasn't there, nimrod," Uma snapped, unable to hold her peace any longer. "I found him moping on the beach. He's the one that offered to help me even after I told him everything I did."

"The kids don't deserve to be on the Isle, your majesties," Chad said, trying to get things back on track and hoping they wouldn't dig into his pity party at the beach. "I think we can all agree to that. They haven't committed any crimes in Auradon to warrant their confinement. And yes, I know there was some… concern about the way they were brought up, but Mal and the others have already proven that they can choose to be good."

"And if they choose to be bad?" King Eugene offered, raising one brow.

"Then they had the choice," Chad said. "Just like anyone in Auradon had that choice."

The queen regarded him carefully. "You are very dedicated to this cause."

Chad felt himself blush. "It's just… it's the right thing to do. Ben made me see that. He was supposed to be working on bringing more kids over from the Isle-"

"But he hasn't done it," Uma cut in, crossing her arms. "And the life expectancy for a minor isn't exactly great on the Isle. We don't need four or five kids taken over at a time, we need all of them free."

"Anyone who hasn't committed a crime in Auradon," Chad clarified, knowing full well the VKs had to commit many crimes on the Isle just to survive. "I… I want to try and get a council consensus to start reforms, but Uma needs to be claimed as a refugee first."

"So she won't get sent back," the queen surmised. "Do you have a plan?" she asked. "To get a majority?"

"…no," Chad admitted. He'd been counting on Ben to do that, which was lazy. "But I can make one. I mean- Uma knows what the kids will actually need when they get off the Isle," he explained, motioning to her. "Between her knowledge and my understanding of basic legislature, we can draft something to present to the other kingdoms. If we have a plan for how to integrate the kids into Auradon, then they might be more likely to back us."

"True," King Eugene hummed. "But we – the council – have been attempting to do just that for the past six months, ever since we learned about the VKs' existence. And let me tell you, we have gotten nowhere."

"Because you don't have a plan," Chad pressed. "Because… because you're addressing the issue as a group. But really, this issue needs to be addressed on an individual basis, without the pressure of other royals. If we can approach the kingdoms individually, they might be willing to hear us out and give their backing, and then we can take the legislature to the council, propose it, and have a majority."

"That could work," Queen Rapunzel said noncommittally. "Who would you start with?"

"I'd… start with the definite supporters first," Chad decided. "Get them aware of what was happening so they could help grease the wheels for the kingdoms that are on the fence. So… um- Corona," he said, looking to the king and queen and seeing them nod, both wearing small smiles. "And then if we can get you guys, we could get Arendelle and Deep Jungle, since they're family." All cousins, though King Tarzan was younger than his sisters. "And we could probably get Agrabah, due to Lord Consort Aladdin's criminal background, and if we got them, we'd get Apheliotia for sure." Lord Aladdin and King Hercules went way back. "And Notre Dame would likely follow due to its close friendship and proximity to Apheliotia."

"If you got Apheliotia, you'd also get Westerly," King Eugene mused. "Since Queen Ariel and King Hercules are distant cousins. And if you got Westerly, you'd get Atlantica, and with them, Atlantis."

That was… already a lot.

"Maldonia is already on your side," Queen Rapunzel spoke up gently. "Queen Tiana has been preaching reform for years. As has Queen Snow, Queen Merida, and General Fa."

"That's over ten," Uma noted with a furrow of her brows. "If you've got that many onboard to help, why the hell haven't you done anything already?"

"Because there's a strong enough opposition to convince the kingdoms that are on the fence to play it safe," Queen Rapunzel explained, like she'd been expecting this question. "The most negative minority are generally the loudest. Our enemies in this task are Ulstead, Auroria, Sardinia-" She gave Chad a pitying look, but he knew full well the extent of his grandfather's opinions on the Isle. "-Andalasia, Merroway Cove, Weselton, Equis, and the Southern Isles."

"Their numbers are fewer, but they are loud," King Eugene said with a sigh. "Loud enough to play on people's fear."

"You'll need to meet with the kingdoms that are erring on the side of caution," the queen cut in. "Roland is a great King for Enchancia, but he's not one to make waves. Change his mind. Show him that there are stakes."

"Princess Elena of Avalor will be all for helping us," the king said. "But she's young. It's her grandparents you have to win over, and they're still resettling their kingdom after Shuriki's habitation. You'll have to make them see that the children of the Isle are just as repressed as their own citizens had been under Suriki's rule."

"If you can get them, you can get the others," Queen Rapunzel said, smile stretching wide. "Hakalo, Cordoba, Prydain, Montunui, Freezenburg, Port Royal, Inca, Tangu, Wei-Ling, Khaldoun – show them that their votes matter."

"You keep telling him to do this," Uma interrupted with a frown. "Aren't you guys going to do anything?"

The king and queen shared a look. "As members of the council, we aren't officially allowed to reach out to other council members regarding legislature that should be presented to the united kingdoms."

"Doesn't stop Phillip from doing it," King Eugene grumbled, letting out a small 'oof' when the queen elbowed him in the side.

"Technically," the queen began. "-our hands are tied. But yours aren't."

'Yours', as in Chad's, because Uma still had a report-on-sight order on her. It was- they wanted to leave it up to him.

"You can do this, Chad," the king said, as though reading his panic. "You already sold us on it. You just have to do it again. And again. And again."

"We'll support you any way we can," Queen Rapunzel said brightly, cutting her husband off. "Whatever it takes to keep your efforts as off the radar as possible."

"Yeah," the king scoffed. "If any of those objecting kingdoms catch wind of this, they will raise and amazing stink over it."

Anxiety was encroaching upon Chad, so he broke the issue down into what he could handle. "I… I'll need help with transport."

"You don't have a car?" the king asked, seeming confused. "I thought you were Ruby's age."

A swell of shame blossomed behind Chad's cheeks. "My um… grandfather doesn't trust me with that."

"Of course he doesn't," the king sighed. "He probably saw you being a progressive member of society and thought 'how do I stop this?'."

"Eugene," the queen hissed, giving his arm a light smack before turning back to Chad. "We can help you with that. Like I said, whatever you need."

"And you'll claim Uma as a refugee?" Chad pressed, bringing the Isle teen that had been so quiet back into the conversation.

Queen Rapunzel nodded. "We'll get started on the paperwork now."

"Look at us," King Eugene drawled as he ushered them to their feet, ready to guide them towards some kind of office. "I thought Ben would have this shit sorted before we resorted to a council consensus, but desperate times…"

"We'll do what needs to be done," the queen said, giving them a careful look. "Between you two, we'll get it done."

It was all Chad could ask for. The chance to do something useful. The chance to be more.

Maybe if he helped fixed things, Audrey wouldn't consider him tainted. Maybe she'd like him again. It wasn't his sole motivation for taking this on, but it was definitely a factor.

And. Well. There were worse reasons to do things.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Endnotes:

Thank you guys for the reviews! I'm always glad to know that this story helps brighten y'all's day :D

Story notes:

I feel like the mess of events that happened in Descendants 2 could be explained by Ben/Mal both being emotionally compromised, Jay too- and having them spurred towards this by their distance with Chad seemed like a logical explanation to me.

For those of you unfamiliar with 'Rapunzel's Tangled Adventures', the guy with the goggles is Varian – a genius, engineer character who I decided is also good with computers.

To clarify, 'cuz I'm not sure if it came across, Rapunzel and Eugene aren't being lazy here, they're sort of testing Chad's commitment and his knowledge/determination to finish evaluating him. They don't know much about him besides his reputation, and it isn't that good.

I found Apheliotia on a fan map? I decided it would represent Greece. The same logic went for Westerly, which is what I decided to name Eric and Ariel's kingdom, as it did not have an official name.

Won't lie, a lot of these kingdoms were snagged from Sofia the First. I included Andalasia as a 'bad guy' assuming it was still under the rule of the evil queen Narissa.

Until next time :)